The Neff Round Barn / Green Waters

My husband and I were traveling on this day. We attended a family event, the second birthday party for my brother's granddaughter. It was held in Middleburg. A three-hour drive round-trip would get us there and back again.

The weather forecast was calling for rain at some point, which was bearing down on us from Ohio. My husband and I follow two different weather groups online: his called for rain by mid-day, while mine said it wouldn't arrive until 6 o'clock. Well, guess what: his was right and mine was wrong.

We had hoped to fit in a short stop at Hairy John Voneida's picnic area, which is located along route 45. The morning was sunny, and we got there in a bit more than an hour. A car coming the other direction flashed its lights at us. It wasn't COPS he was warning us about; it was a bunch (maybe 8 to 10) of Amish buggies on the road ahead.

We pulled into the picnic area and grabbed our stuff and walked over to the little pond at the picnic area, which you may see in the extras. The waters were very clean, and clear, and cold, and everything was GREEN. The water is not deep there; in fact it is mostly rather shallow, and full of water skippers, and lovely for wading on a hot summer's day (which this wasn't, so we didn't, though we usually DO). 

I walked around the little green pond quite happily, taking pictures of the reflections, the patterns on the spillway, the amphibian eggs, and the spring water that flows out, sweet enough for drinking (and we did).

I'd looked at the online maps in advance and we found our venue pretty easily; participated in the party, had snacks, gave gifts, celebrated the birthday girl, saddled up the inflatable pink hobby horses provided (YEEHAW!), and rode them, visited with family and friends. And then it was time to head home. Out we went into the rain.

On the drive down, along route 45, we'd passed the Neff round barn, built in 1910, which is a favorite local photo op. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The only problem is that there is nowhere easy and safe to pull over and park the car to get a few shots.

I had raindrops on my window, and the rain itself varied from heavy at times to light. Could I put my window down and shoot out it? No, I decided that was too risky. I didn't want to get rain on the camera. So I did put the window all the way down, then back up, hoping the action would remove all those raindrops. Well, it somehow made it WORSE. Now my view was obscured.

But by the time we got to the barn, not far from the sign to Tusseyville, the rain had slowed down and my window had dried out some. I got three really surprisingly decent shots of the round barn from a moving car, through a dirty window, in the rain. So the round barn, 56 feet high and 88 feet in diameter, is my main photo for the day.

I've got two photos so here are two soundtrack songs. First, for the round barn above that is a local historical landmark, I've got Dead or Alive, with You Spin Me Round. For the green waters at Hairy John ("whiskers and all!") in the extras, I've got Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, with Shallow.